Rites of passage

Bujor Andrada BiancaClasa a IX-a C

Bujor Andrada Bianca,student in IXth class at the National College’’Tudor

Arghezi’’invites you to take a peek while among the most frightening monsters of

Philippine mythology and among the worst of the burial rites of world civilizations.

Hello!I am Winnetou,head of the press tribe of the Rio Pecos river.What would you say if we make a journey through time among the most frightening monsters of Philippine mythology and among the most bizzare and grim burial techniques?It will be very scary.

Are you scary???This is Aswang…it is the most famous of the monsters from Philipine mythology.Aswang changes its shape,on their human form,and at night turns into dog,pig,cat,snake.According to regional believes,they steal the bodies of recently deceased or they enter in people’s homes to drink their blood and they can turn men into Aswanges if they cheat on the first buy to them.It is also thought that the Aswanges prefer human fetuses,so the locals organize patrols to monitor the homes of pregnant women.

Matruculan is another creature

that attack pregnant

women.This violates a virgin

woman that lives pregnant,then

attack again and kills the woman to

eat her fetus.To protect the mother,the

husband have to shake a butterfly

knife over the woman’s abdomen

while she is in labor.

Kapri are giants with bright eyes and a big cigar in the mounth.They are in the top of the tree and scare naught children who stay out late at night.Some legends said that in fact Kapri are very friendly giants,which can satisfy your desires if you find their white magic stone.

Tiyanak is a creature similar sirens in Greek mythology, which attract prey with voice.Victims hear a child crying in the forest and follow the sound to save the child.Some legends say that people wonder in search of the child and disssapear.

Others argue that the victim found a child in woods,but when they take into their arms,he transforms into a monster with big teeth and sharp,and eats his benefactor,and then turns into a child who is waiting for his next victim.

Duwende are small creatures that resemble the people who live below ground.There are two types of Duwende:Duwende Puti,which are good and bring good luck and Duwende Itim,which are bad and like to make jokes to the people.

These creatures interact with people only when they bother housing.The best way to avoid them is to speak it aloud Tabia-Tabia-po,when they enter to a territory where it could live Duwende.

BURIAL RITES

Now we get into the mysteries of this phenomenon which has rised many questions

for all the civilizations.However,before understanding,the people on the world faced with a problem more stringent ,namely,what is

faute with a men once he had pass into nonexistence.

Towers of Silence of zoroastriens

Zoroaster was a prophet of Iranian origin,who founded the yoroastrism,a religion that has lasted over 2500 years and has followers even today.The zoroastriens thinks that deads are impure and should not polutte the earth by burial.

Instead,the death of this followers were part of a ceremony called the tower of silence,which usually takes place on a montain plateau.Dead bodies are left the animal will and vagaries of nature.When the bones were cleaned,they are collected and dissolved in a solution of lime.

TREE BURIALTribes in many parts of the world have discovered that the best way to store their deads is rather above than ground.Indigenous people in Australia,south-west of United States and Siberia practice tree burial,which consisted of wrapping the dead in cloth and hanging of a tree,where it is left to decay.

Viking burials in boats

Medieval Vikings lived and died in large.After death,wealthier Vikings were put on a pot,along with food,weapons,jewelry and even servants and animals sometimes.Boats were buried in the ground,burnt or sent to sea.Destination of deads Vikings was Valhala.

Tibetans and sky burialIn Tibet,the deads fly.Rather than bury them,some Tibetans leaves their deads on top of a mountain to be eaten by vultures.Corpses are even smeared with flour and milk,to ensure that birds will cary them to heaven.

MUMMIFICATION

Ancien Egyptian mummies are still the most beautiful dead

bodies in the world.Mummification ritual began with extracting the

nostrils with an iron bent a apart of the brain,and the other was liquefied with

certain drugs.

Then the body was emptied of intestines,cleaned and purified,and the place emptied was filled with smyrna pissed and sewn again.Body was then soaked with a special solution and placed in a hidden place for 70 days.Then he was wrapped from head to legs in strips of cloth and put on his face a mask of in,which kept the similarity with dead’s figure.Relatives were sure to stick immediately after embalming a corpse in a special wooden box,built in the form of man and has two round windows in the direction of eyes for the dead can see the san.

And now it is time to say

goodbye

THE END